Telecommunications service providers, or carriers, today are focused on the delivery of broadband and ultra-broadband Internet services (or broadband) consisting of video, data and voice; not just telephony as their main source of revenue. The term broadband refers to wide bandwidth data transmission with the ability to simultaneously transport multiple signals and traffic types, sometimes referred to as converged data, over various media types. In the context of Internet access, broadband is used to mean any high-speed Internet access that is always available, in other words always on, and faster than traditional dial-up access. Broadband services can be delivered by one of four means: Digital Subscriber Line (DSL), Cable, Optical Fiber and Satellite.
Telecommunications carriers prefer to deliver their broadband services using DSL because it re-uses the twisted pair phone lines already running out to every residence and business. They are exploring the use of fiber because of its superior bandwidth and speed but the cost to run fiber to the residence or business in anything other than a so called ‘green field’, new construction situation remains prohibitively high. DSL has evolved gradually over the last 20-years since being first deployed but has consistently been outpaced in terms of bandwidth and speed by broadband services delivered over cable. Today, however, new technologies, including Gfast and G/now/G.hn, are emerging that are able to deliver gigabit broadband services over telephony twisted pair thus giving telecommunications carriers a solution that is competitive with cable and even optical fiber. These new ultra-fast broadband technologies are emerging at a time when the need to minimize capital expense and increase revenue from existing copper assets is at an all time high for the telecommunications carriers. This pressure has forced some carriers to take on the cable assets of otherwise failing satellite services companies in an attempt to profitably monetize them. Now with a mix of both twisted pair and coaxial copper assets, some telecommunications carriers are in need of a convenient means for adapting between the different cable types for broadband delivery to the premises or business.
The invention proposed here address that need and solves the problem by integrating the media interface into a pluggable module suitable for any customer premise equipment (CPE) provisioned with a corresponding socket and cage. Pluggable modules that can be fitted to a CPE for broadband technologies, including Gfast, with a twisted pair electrical connector interface exist. What's missing is a complementing pluggable module with a connector interface suitable for connecting to the coaxial cable assets now owned by some telecommunications carriers.